"Um... Ms. Shizue. I'll ask this as a formality first... but would you have any intention of becoming an adventurer of [Blumund] and resuming your activities here...?"
Fuze brought up the request the king and Baron Veryard had so desperately asked him to make.
But just as he had expected, Shizue had no intention of accepting it.
"Sorry, but I don't plan to work as an adventurer anymore. I've already gained all the 'growth' I could from adventuring, and I still have students I need to teach."
"...I thought you'd say that..."
Watching Shizue refuse with a bitter smile, Fuze could only return one of his own. To him, her choice was only natural.
She was already a legendary adventurer and hero who represented the West, and she served as discipleship under the [Hero] known as humanity's strongest and the great white-haired archmage standing right beside him. There was no way a minor country like this could possibly satisfy someone like her.
'And on top of that, her fellow disciples are that famous [Grand Master] and the strongest [Crusaders]... For someone like them, staying tied to a small nation like this would be nothing but a loss...'
For someone who bore the title of [Master], calling his own homeland a weak little country was a rather cutting assessment, but it wasn't wrong.
With the Jura Great Forest right in front of it and the [Eastern Empire] beyond that, [Blumund] was, regardless of its intelligence network, one of the weaker nations in the West.
"......Ah, right. Speaking of that... Ms. Shizue, the presence of Veldora, the [Storm Dragon] that had been sealed in the great forest until recently, suddenly vanished... Do you know anything about that?"
Changing the subject, Fuze revealed one of [Blumund]'s highest secrets. The bitter smile vanished from his lips, replaced by a grave look.
The information that Veldora had disappeared was valuable enough to be treated as top secret even in [Dwargo], but Fuze didn't worry much about saying it here.
He trusted that Shizue—and the archmage quietly watching beside her, Ria—would never leak it carelessly.
From the perspective of someone who knew nothing about Adelio and Ria's true identities, the two standing before him were members of the [Hero Party], humanity's greatest military force.
"......"
But Shizue was far from the naive sort of hero people imagined her to be.
She was so deeply influenced by her master that, if he wished it, she would not find it a waste to throw away her current status as a hero altogether.
"Yes, I know. My teacher told me himself. He said, 'The [Storm Dragon], who should still be trapped inside the seal, vanished completely without any warning signs.'"
For Adelio's sake, Shizue skillfully mixed a lie into her answer to Fuze.
She already knew that Veldora had disappeared because of that slime named Rimuru, but since Adelio still had no intention of revealing Rimuru yet, she added a very small lie to protect that secret.
'Sorry, Fuze.'
Silently promising herself that she would help with some [Guild] work later to make up for it, Shizue swallowed the rest of what she wanted to say.
"...!! Lord Adelio... told you that himself...?"
Meanwhile, Fuze's voice trembled thinly as he heard her answer.
Adelio, the [Sword of Spirit].
If the man who had protected the West for hundreds of years had acknowledged it himself, then it truly meant the [Storm Dragon] had vanished.
Without doubting Shizue's words in the slightest, Fuze broke out in a cold sweat at the confirmation that Veldora's disappearance was real.
If that "Emperor" realized that Veldora—the symbol of power that had restrained the [Eastern Empire] from invading the West—was gone, an unprecedented great war could break out.
'......So the worst really did happen... Other nations may not know yet, but it's only a matter of time now.'
Someone might ask what there was to fear from a single nation, but the opponent was the [Eastern Empire].
The unquestioned strongest nation in the world, founded by the first [Hero] in history as its first emperor, and guarded by the third [True Dragon], the [Scorch Dragon].
Even after thousands of years, the [Eastern Empire] had always remained the strongest nation in the world, and that had not changed to this day.
"...If things have come to this, then the two of you will probably start acting publicly again soon."
"Most likely."
Ria answered Fuze's pale-faced murmur for the first time. Then she gave a small smile and turned her gaze toward the window.
"......"
A pair of crimson eyes reflected in the glass, gleaming like rubies.
Those eyes, regarded among demons as the symbol of an empress, instantly pierced through the familiar figure approaching the [Guild]... no, flying toward it.
"Looks like he got back just in time."
"?"
"Excuse me...? What do you mea—"
Fwhoooosh—!
Before Shizue could do more than tilt her head and before Fuze could finish asking, a figure abruptly appeared outside the window with a violent rush of wind.
Hummm...
The owner of that figure, marked by ash-gray hair glinting in the sunlight, was—
"Whew."
The very person Shizue had just been talking about.
"Teacher!"
"......Ah... A-Adelio... sir?"
There was only one human alive skilled enough that even Shizue, blessed with talent ranked among the top five in all humanity, could fail to sense his approach.
"Long time no see, Fuze. Has it really been almost five years?"
The ash-haired man, Adelio, who had flown from [Dwargo] to [Blumund] in less than a single night at nearly subsonic speed, curved his lips in a faint smile.
He had only followed the magicules of Shizue and Ria to get here, but seeing an unexpected acquaintance with them seemed to amuse him quite a bit.
"I was actually planning to come find you because I had something to ask, but I didn't expect to find you gathered together with these two."
"Y-Yes? You... you have something to ask me...? Is it... perhaps something important...?"
Fuze barely managed to force out the words, his voice shaking all the while as he listened to Adelio's casual remark.
He had spoken directly with Adelio a few times before through Shizue, but having to offer his thoughts to a [Hero] equal to a great nation—and to his companions—was something he never got used to, no matter how many times it happened.
'......Th-This can't be real... A mere [Guild Master] like me... is it really okay for me to entertain people like this all by myself...?!'
Fuze was beginning to desperately need stomach medicine.
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